Jose Mourinho as an Avatar for the beautiful game

In a way, the special one has come to symbolize the future of the beautiful game in proportions often underrated. Winning is everything and as a natural winner, endowed with the tactics and antics to produce results with such an enviable degree of certainty for the football teams he has coached. Jose stands out brightly as a competent avatar for the future of the game, a poster boy for the very ideals most team will have to abide by in other to be successful.

Granted that in football, winning has always been essential, in the past successes where achieved with revered decency and sportsmanship, a quality that allowed teams and players with exciting technique and artistry to flourish. When the Germans play the Brazilians, it was quite easy to appreciate the contrasting styles because as a contact sport, players rode tackles with game fullness and the motivation to gain dubious advantages by feigning infringement was wholly despised. Nobody can deny the role played by this sporty philosophy in showcasing the game in such rarefied percept, a key ingredient that enticed a global audience. Remove Barcelona and Arsenal and you will perhaps need a microscope to scan for any other team in top flight European club football who still cherishes the need to play football in a way that is fair and pleasing to the eye.

A trick which is being enacted with impunity is to ensure football is played for a less amount of time. At the slightest contact, a modern football player goes to the ground often with the added intent to get the opposing player booked, a practice that is so well rehearsed as his mates encircle the referee as well. Once the card is awarded, a football player who was wriggling in so much pain springs up from the turf with excellent agility. Top teams take it further by using these situations to dent the composure of the referees. In the recent champions league game between Barcelona and Inter Milan, the referee was completely ruffled by play acting from both sides that he went on a mishap spree, giving an unfair red card, missing clear fouls and giving infringement against the offended. In this realm, Mourinho is king. Once the referee is taken out, the negative antics simply flourish. Welcome to the future of football.